Design Fundamentals (FUND1-CE)

Typography is a powerful communication tool that sets great designers apart from the pack. Develop an understanding of type’s anatomy, terminology, organization, and relationship with other graphic elements. Explore how letterforms and clusters of letters can convey meaning. Become aware of how font choices have an impact on messages and compositions. Create typographic configurations to sharpen perceptions of the characteristics of type.

Designers rely on typographical styles to express personality, convey a client's brand identity, and clearly communicate information to audiences. Command of typography is an essential skill that requires an appropriate blend of practical knowledge and an ability to think conceptually. Expand your knowledge of typography and explore different facets of type fonts with consideration to aethetic style, legibility, and related "families" of type. Create projects that utilize both text types and their considered placement within the composition to enhance their message, whether using typographic elements alone, or designs with imagery.

The urban environment offers an encyclopedic range of visual forms from which the designer can draw. In this hands-on studio course—intended for graphic designers, digital designers, and architecture and interior designers—tap into this source through five field trips to dynamic public spaces alternated with five studio classes. During field trips, take digital photographs documenting your design observations of New York City’s inspirational architecture. Then, these visual documents are printed and taken into a studio class where they are analyzed through a guided design critique. Assemble selected images into collage compositions that combine and unify quantitative documentation with qualitative design concepts.

Color can evoke a spectrum of emotional responses, making it an essential subject for budding artists and designers to explore. This course studies color from an aesthetic perspective. Examine which colors create a cohesive palette for projects, which seem to recede or advance, which vibrate when placed next to each other, and which should be avoided when designing for international audiences due to cultural perceptions. Discover how the properties of each color can imbue your art and designs with meaning and significance.

For a company to succeed, it must establish a compelling brand identity with a distinct personality that communicates its unique offerings to customers. A brand image is defined by color, logo, typography, and photography that can be codified and documented in a corporate style guide to ensure quality and consistency of the brand. This course surveys how words, imagery, metaphor, and symbolism help brands to stand out among competitors across multiple platforms, including print collateral, websites, retail environments and media. This course prepares you to design and establish visual identities and brand standards across a variety of mediums. Learn to look beyond the basics of logo design, and develop a fundamental understanding of the aspects of designing a brand system that is scalable and replicable.

Explore the basic design principles and sources of design inspiration fundamental to all visual arts through readings, discussion, and design exercises. This visual design theory course introduces the core concepts of visual design: the visual elements, the principles of design, and the creative process. Composition issues and strategies that are valid in all areas of visual design are explored through examples, exercises, critiques, and creative projects. Engage with and refine your creative problem-solving skills. Work to understand and analyze design problems, developing distinctive concept statements and then creating and refining designs that manifest that concept.

Learn the methods that professionals use throughout the creative process, and discover how to generate powerful and effective design concepts. In this class, participate in a series of design exercises, in-depth discussions, and brainstorming sessions to deepen your capacity for conceptual thinking. Experiment with basic principles of drawing to refine and hone your design concepts and to improve your ability to communicate ideas clearly. Using a sketchbook and a pencil, learn how to indicate simple shapes to convey your ideas, strengthen hand-eye coordination, and use your creativity to generate original, powerful ideas that effectively address clients’ needs.

Design in the present tense is a mirror of the cultural climate; in the past tense, it is a visual history lesson that expresses the zeitgeist of a certain time. What are the contextual forces that shape styles, trends, and tastes? Discover past and present innovators; learn how cultural events, technology, and philosophy influence design; shape your own design solutions; and anticipate future trends with new understanding.

Designers rely on typography to express personality, to convey a client’s brand identity, and to clearly communicate information to audiences. Command of typography is an essential skill that requires an appropriate blend of practical knowledge and conceptual thinking. Develop an understanding of the anatomy of type as well as its terminology, organization, and relationship with other graphic elements. Explore how letterforms and clusters of letters can convey meaning. Learn how the use of fonts and specific font families—type with particular aesthetic styles, degrees of legibility, and historical and cultural significance—has an impact on messages and compositions. Create projects ranging from simple typographic elements to increasingly more complex compositions that ultimately involve other graphic elements and imagery.

This studio course emphasizes the conceptualization process for 3D forms and its function in visual problem solving in 2D and 3D environments. Use qualitative and quantitative research techniques to analyze and discover 3D solutions to 2D concept development. This course consists of lectures, discussions, in-class and take-home projects, group critiques, and individual consultation. Employ a combination of traditional hands-on techniques and advanced technical skills to complete most projects.

This introductory class is for those who want to begin a design-based business venture. A series of open-ended assignments introduce the basic steps for turning a design opportunity into a creative solution that stands out in the marketplace. Develop an understanding of design and conceptualization basics and an awareness of the many skills (including 2D, conceptualization, product, branding, typography, web design, and animation) that can be developed in further detail. Receive an introduction to prototyping, production, and marketing resources made possible by new technologies (Shapeways, SketchUp, MakerBot, Ponoko Personal Factory, Laser, CNC, and Etsy), and use these resources to continue to develop your own concepts and ideas. After initial sessions, the course meets again in the middle and at the end of the semester to review projects and to discuss next steps.

<p>Every creative journey begins with a problem. This course explores the use of disruptive innovation and divergent thinking to generate creative ideas that support many possible solutions. You are encouraged to think differently and to envisage that which never existed. Learn conceptualization techniques that are applicable to all design disciplines and industry categories. Explore innovative tools such as contextual learning, analogous thinking, and biomimicry, and then participate in spontaneous and free-flowing exercises, in-depth discussions, presentations, and case studies. Arrive at possible solutions by making unexpected connections and thereby solving client problems in new and innovative ways.</p>

How we interpret signs is vital to human communication. Why does a dove mean peace, and a lion mean strength? Discover how these symbols are defined and how this methodology is used in strategic branding across media platforms and cultures. An understanding of the theory and language of signs and symbols helps designers to create identities and advertising that distinguish one brand from others. In this course, investigate semiotic tools, processes, and contexts for creating, interpreting, and understanding meaning in a variety of ways. Participate in spontaneous exercises, in-depth discussions, presentations, and case studies that foster your ability to market or design new brands.